Well, it’s officially July! I’ve got a few lovely days off this week (woo!) and I’ve already started to get excited about this year’s National Moth Week. I love Moth Week! I wrote about it for the blog at my museum last week and I am going on a local news morning show on Saturday to talk about the event I put on for it at the museum each year, so I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently. Really ready to start seeing things like this again:
Rosy maple moth
Rosy maple moths are pretty common around here, but they are spectacular and put a smile on my face every time I see one. How can you resist a fuzzy moth that’s the color of rainbow sherbet?
Are you all ready for National Moth Week? It’s July 19-27 this year, so make plans to view some moths that week. You never know what amazing things you’ll see!
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The Dragonfly Woman 
Very cool pic…What a beautiful moth. So where is “around here” that these are so common?
North Carolina!
Is this legit? I’ve never seen a pink and yellow moth. And now I really want to!
I’ve seen loads of these, so they’re 100% real! And just this color in person too. They’re pretty snazzy!
Wish there were some colourful moths around my neighborhood but seems most of the moths we get are geometrids. You’re lucky!
Chris, I’m asking you here as Flickr won’t load comments or the comment box on my tablet. I know female mosquitoes need a blood meal to enable egg laying as they have a higher protein requirement. But do you know if they have a need for iron, as found in hemoglobin, too?
If it’s just the protein they require, do you know of any mosquito species that can feed off reptiles, amphibians or the like? What about feeding off other insects since many insects prey on other insects?
If the females would only leave us (or other mammals and birds) alone like males do, I wouldn’t mind them. Nothing so infuriating as hearing from that dreaded whine of one homing in after I’ve gone to bed and lights out.
I honestly don’t know what specifically the female mosquitoes need from blood for egg production! I do know, however, that they can definitely feed off of reptiles and I would imagine that they can also feed on amphibians. I’ve never heard of them feeding from other insects though. Would be cool if they did, but that seems like the the sort of thing that would be SO crazy that entos would talk about it as one of the “fun facts” about mosquitoes all the time id they DID actually do it. I’d bet that doesn’t usually happen, but I really don’t know.
So basically, I’m not much help in answering your questions apart from knowing for sure that they DO feed on reptiles. I’ve got photos of snapping turtles covered in mosquitoes, so I’m 100% sure about that!